Daily Devotions

“And you, Belshazzar his son, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this! You have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven! The vessels of his temple have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know; but the God in whose power is your very breath, and to whom belong all your ways, you have not honored.“

“So from his presence the hand was sent and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed in purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made concerning him that he should rank third in the kingdom.”

“That very night Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.” Daniel 5:22-31

Every Sunday we put an insert in our bulletin called “Taking Faith Home” which includes various activities that families can do at home that build upon what they hear in church that day, including a list of daily Bible readings for the coming week. (You can find this and other resources at www.vibrantfaithathome.org) I get the daily readings from these devotions from that resource; I don’t choose them on my own.

I say that to say this – even though our congregation is in the midst of 40 Days of Health, working on what Rick Warren titled “The Daniel Plan” – the fact that today’s reading comes from the book of Daniel is completely a coincidence.

Or is it?

What happens in this reading is that Daniel, no longer the young man eating his vegetables in the first chapter, is now an experienced advisor in the Babylonian court. He is called upon to interpret a dream of the son of the king who oversaw the destruction and deportation of Israel. Daniel doesn’t pull his punches. He clearly, directly, and courageously nails King Belshazzar with the bad news that his world is about to come crashing down around his ears.

Straight talk. We might not want to hear it but we are always better off if we have people in our lives who are willing to talk straight with us. To tell is like it really is, not what we want to hear just because we want to hear it.

We can’t grow without straight talk. We can live in reality without telling, hearing, or facing the truth about life.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, in Daniel we hear the story of a man who is held accountable for his pride and lack of reverence. We are often guilty of both. We chase idols, we ignore you, we abuse our freedoms. Come to us through the voices of people willing to mirror back to us the destructive and self-destructive nature of such behaviors. Give us the grace to really hear straight talk and the willingness to make changes that need to be made. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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